Monthly Archives: April 2004

UIUC Unveils the World’s Most Advanced Building

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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is my undergraduate alma mater. We watched with alternating boredom and glee as the Beckman Artificial Intelligence Institute and Grainger Engineering Library went up, and clogged two of CU’s ten or so main traffic arteries. The complex is also situated a block away from my old high school. Check it out at sc.cs.uiuc.edu/index.php This new development is even more amusing:

From /.:

The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, one of the top Computer Science programs in the world has just officially opened their new $80 million Siebel Center (with its own espresso bar! –the Ed). The department head describes the building as a single computing entity, meant to be programmed and to interact with those in the building via RFID tags in their ID cards. This is probably one of the biggest and most expensive projects in ubiquitous computing ever launched, touching on all the important issues in this field, from privacy to the ultimate question about the usefulness of such a system. Several papers are covering this including the Chicago Sun Times, and the Chicago Business.

/. responds:

  • So will they use the java smart cards that work when approaching a computer?
  • I’m sorry Dave, I can’t let you in. Your GPA is too low this semester.
  • Does that mean the building is wildly overpriced and requires expensive consultants in suits to do anything right?
  • I’m not sure if I like the idea that anything between me and these 4 walls is now between me and some sort of ubiquitous building-computer.
  • The UIUC bldg sounds extremely cool, but in 5 yrs folks will be smiling politely at the “hokey-ness” of the place.
  • I guess they had to go and install “Microsoft Office… that is, REAL Office”. Now, when you go down the hall, the “Buildy” mascot asks things like. “You appear to be walking to the bathroom. Would you like some help?”
  • This proves the point that all things human go in cycles. First computers were the size of buildings, then they shrunk down to fit in the palm, now they are becoming the size of buildings again.
  • How much their next upgrade is gonna cost??
  • This building isn’t an effort to revive a program (currently ranked #3 in Engineering, #3 in ECE, and #5 in CS), it’s a natural step taking to increase the facilities available to accommodate recent advances by the University, and a continuously growing program which time and time again excels in all areas.

Medical Malpractice Suits: 10,000 Lawyers At The Bottom Of The Ocean Now!

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This just in from my brother:

The malpractice situation in Ohio is getting really bad. Cases in point follow.

Dr. A’s insurance policy was declared non-renewable because he had 3 suits in the last 1 year (all 3 of which were dropped, one in which he had not even seen the patient and the insurance company had to spend $3000 to remove his name from the suit).

Dr. B has received 3 suits in the last 6 months. One has been dropped, one is going to be dropped and the other is still being hemmed and hawed about). He will find out in a month if he is being dropped vis a vis insurance.

Dr. C had 2 suits this year with a threat of a third – the first two have been dropped.

Dr. D is waiting to hear within a month if his suit will be dropped. He has heard rumors of a family blaming doctors in another case he is involved in peripherally, so he expects to be hit by the shotgun approach.

Dr. E waits with bated breath re: a suicide case who swallowed poison and was dying but bled and he was forced to do a scope on him but the family blames the death on all the doctors (like we gave him the poison). These may not see the light of day for another year or so. The lawyers like us to stew in our misgivings for a few months so we get softened up for the kill, you see.

So, my dear girl, the question is not whether I am moving, it is only a matter of when. All of us have to have what is called tail insurance. That is, if we leave, we have to have insurance to cover us for cases that may arise several years later (thanks to a generous statute of limitations). The tail premium is about 150K and may be higher in the next two years. So, I have to pay a king’s ransom for the privilege of leaving this area. Isn’t that ironic – I cannot even leave in peace! Maybe I will turn to something else altogether like day trading or management.

My response:

Greedy f*ing lawyers!

Pardon my Cajun; that term was reserved for a special occasion and this was it. You see, this is what I despise about the two-party system. No matter which one you belong to, you are stupid unless you realize that they are playing you for the adherent that you are, the spineless supplicant to the “democratic” process which offers validation for hating a member of the other party. Do you know how many Democrats strongly believe that the Doctor is Satan? Even with their cellphones and laptops, they feel disenfranchised to the point that they have to villainize someone for their misgivings. I’m not absolving the Republicans in any way, shape, or form, they’re from a deeper rung of hell. Yet, most Americans, regardless of party affiliation, deserve the electoral college and negative campaign ads, if that’s all they are willing to perceive.

I am disgusted. I’m SO disgusted. But, you have a choice. You can move. How many other people in the throes of these lawsuits have that leisure? You guys should whip out an ad campaign that highlights how these colonies of lawyer scum make their money. You should show the nation their flashy cars, how they live, talk, and vacate, all based on the huge percentage of the lawsuit earnings the lawyers get versus how your pay goes down every year. Pan to you guys slaving over a patient and trying to help him and going home in your Acura or minivan compared to them in Mercedes Earthmovers after a day of phonecalls and subpoenas. You guys (doctors) are appealing to the wrong group – the politicians – you need to use your smarts to enlighten the patient. Show the voting class how to wise up, instead of throwing spears at the first thing they see.

Makes you believe in karma more and more, doesn’t it?

Update: I am so incensed that I have an addendum. Americans think they are invincible to the point that they think they can cheat death. If they cannot do that, how are they the supreme world power? Isn’t that why we as a country are in denial that no matter how many young human lives we wipe out on an unforgiving desert floor, we are still winning the war and that we will prevail? In our small-minded insecurity, that is our only comfort. That is the only way we can feel like we are in control.

You talk of medicine. This headache spills over into the energy industry, too. Soon we will be taken to task for not producing enough for their needs. We have reserves, but not to keep up with the growing needs of this society. It pains me to see people working their hind quarters off here everyday to produce and produce and produce hydrocarbons. All for what? To cost $1 a gallon for an SUV that a single person can drive a mile to the grocery store? I can only fantasize about the uprising if the price of gas goes up to $4.50 per gallons as it is in Europe. Then they’ll see.

Never have I seen a population that sqaundered SO much. Those who feel entitled are everywhere, but are only severely encouraged here.

The NO Wall

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No post-slot-machine bliss for this girl. If breaking even is considered lucky, I made out pretty well. Gambling strategy comes to me like flying does to a penguin. Some things you can’t teach, and there are others your pocketbook just doesn’t want to learn. I did figure out that the trick to winning money at slots is not being an utter miser. Put the $20 in the machine, and you will see that you make much more – something about the machine getting hot when it has consumed above the secret magic number in total credits.

Jules asked me if I did anything that had to stay in Vegas. What ever happened to things that stayed in Gary, Indiana?

My pre-coffee response: Didn’t DO shite in Vegas that ought to stay there. How I am here, I was there. Maybe a few cousins and friends strayed over their lines, but I must be getting old. That or my liver and social sensibilities are now accustomed to the beating. Major scarcity of eye candy only exacerbated the situation. What’s up with the Bearable-Guy Famine? Or is it that only neanderthals now go to Vegas to get lucky, after having recently raided a cologne store? Gah. I hung out by the pool and “tanned,” can’t ask for more. Screw guys, let’s find us a poolside.

To which Jules mumbled something about us now being older and more discerning, and how we are in trouble only if our NO Wall starts to crumble. Along with a whisper or two in apology for the poor wording and general incoherence.

Nope, not poorly-worded at all. More than apt language on her part, in fact. Goddammit, when did we get old, Jules? But, it wouldn’t have helped if I were younger either, you know? Something about being a conscientious whippersnapper from the get-go. The NO wall hasn’t started to crumble in the least. And I am glad of that. At the end of the day, I want a reliable guy to go home to – the kind of person who calls you once you land at your destination and says, “Hey, you left your contacts solution here. So, you might want to buy some before you go out tonight or you are going to have to go on the quest for the casino’s sundries store at 4AM and you are not going to like that!” Domestic? Yes. Hot and spicy? Not really, not in this case. Consistent, loving and smells like home? Hell yeah. I don’t need stupidity and consequential soul scratching. The NO wall is staying up.

To which Jules replied, “Even if I were younger and single, I don’t think I would have had the balls to make a move. Part conscience, part pansy constitution. For once being a pansy doesn’t sound like such a bad thing. Also, if you’re ever really doubting things and thinking that romance adventure is where it’s at and want a reminder of just how good you have it, watch Blind Date, The 5th Wheel or Elimidate. It works wonders, really, and can make you laugh to boot. Or cringe. Usually a combination of both.”

This is why Jules, AEC and CEM are always what I wanted in female friends. Able to understand the strong-feminine perspective, effortlessly eloquent in my vernacular, and damned honest. I raise my free casino drink to you, ladies.

Go 3D Ramanis!

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From SiliconValley.com:

Researchers have developed new search engines that can mine catalogs of three-dimensional objects such as airplane parts or architectural features.

For example, Purdue University professor Karthik Ramani created a system that can find computer-designed industrial parts, and Caterpillar Inc. engineer Rick Jeff says of Ramani’s technology: “If you’ve got to design a new elbow for an oil line, more often than not, we have a plethora of elbows”; Jeff says the problem has been that each has to be examined separately — a tedious task “that isn’t even performed that often, because it isn’t feasible or practical… It seems like there’s ever-greater demands for speed in product development, and it’s those kinds of breakthroughs that are needed to keep up. This would really just add to the efficiency.”

Professor Ramani says happily: “I think this is the beginning of the information age.”

Reintarnation

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From the NYTimes: After the Double Helix: Unraveling the Mysteries of the State of Being

I was instructed by D to “read the whole thing first. Has [Crick] never heard of reincarnation? Isn’t reincarnation supposed the rebirth of the soul as part of a cycle?”

Like the man said, go ahead and read the article. And come back and read this.

A semantic rectification: Reincarnation does not mean the rebirth of the soul. The soul is always there, never to die or to be reborn, until final dissipation into the eternal consciousness. Reincarnation implies that the soul has merged with a new material form.

Reincarnation pre-supposes that you have a soul and, in effect, doesn’t negate what Crick is trying to do. However, I will argue that he is being completely unscientific in proposing that he can unequivocally prove that measurable consciousness voids the notion of a soul. Why?

Three reasons:

a) As the article states, he conveniently circumvents qualia. I have posed this question to mathematicians as well as neuroscientists over and over again, “What is pain?” Think about that; what really is pain? Forget neurons telling the brain that you are cut or touching something hot. What causes the discomfort, and more importantly, how do you feel that discomfort? Essentially, what is “feel?”

b) Crick also completely overlooks the dream state. Are we saying that we are not conscious when we are asleep? Not in the daily awake sense of things, but we are still aware and able to interact with the world, which in itself is consciousness. If he ignores the dream state in his experiments, he cannot thoroughly dismiss the soul.

c) Once you have the neural correlates, how do you explain their mechanism? What about them makes you feel? Proving that is going to be more difficult than presenting their mere existence.

The apparent absence or immeasurability of something does not prove its non-existence.

You People Know Me Too Well

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BC sent me a joke this morning:

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and had grown to be in strong favor for the re-distribution of all wealth in America.

She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative and she expressed her shame openly. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs, including his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and more welfare programs.

In the middle of her heart-felt diatribe based upon the lectures she had from her far left professors at school, he stopped her and asked her point blank, “How are you doing in school?”

She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. She was taking a more difficult curriculum than many people she knew. She had to study all the time, she never had time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t have time for a boyfriend and didn’t really have any college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Mary?” She replied, “Mary is barely getting by, she has a 2.0 GPA; even so, all she takes are easy classes and she never studies.” She explained further in a burst of emotion, “But Mary is so very popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She goes to all the parties all the time and often doesn’t show up for classes because she is too hung over.”

He then asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 GPA off your 4.0 and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0?” He continued, “That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.”

The daughter, visibly shocked by the father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, “That wouldn’t be fair! I worked really hard for mine, and Mary has done little or nothing! She has played while I worked real hard!”

The father smiled and slowly said, “Welcome to the Republican Party.”

Of course, I shot back a reply: “The daughter didn’t make her 4.0 GPA at the expense of her friend, did she?”

“Thought that would get ya going,” was the immediate response from the other end.

Damned friends of mine knowing what buttons to push. Anyway, I partied hard and got a 4.0 GPA. So, :-P

Viva Las Vegas, Baby!

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In a couple of weeks, a number of us female cousins and friendswill be in Vegas for what BJV terms our Weekend Of Shame. Between The Thunder From Down Under (Aussie All-Male Revue) and shopping and eating at Aladdin and the Bellagio, we have quite a few varieties of said shame planned. Having previously visited Sin City but not for an all-out bachelorette party, I can only imagine the fiesta and the Impending HangoverOf DoomTM. My male friends assure me I will have a great time, while they cross themselves and thank the stars for not having to spend that particular weekend anywhere in our vicinity. What? Why not? We’re fun …

Las Vegas is an anomaly. What shouldn’t have been is and makes my jaw drop every time I see it. In amazement, in horror, in amazed horror and horrified amazement. I liken the glitzy city to a Catholic church in Europe – so beautiful and overwhelming, but built by the toils of so many and at the expense of so much. Should Nevada’s Whore and its unabashed evaporation of what’s left of the southwestern water table cease to be or should it continue to exist as a reminder of American humanity’s kitschy hubris? Another one of those Great Dilemmas I put myself in — you know, the end doesn’t justify the means, but we have the end, so what are we going to do with it?

Tequila it is, then.